EXEGE´TES
EXEGE´TES (
ἐξηγητής),
an expounder, interpreter, is used both in an ordinary and an official
sense. A local guide or
cicerone is so styled (
Strab. xvii. p.806;
Paus. 1.41.2); Aeschines, ridiculing Demosthenes for his conduct
on the Embassy, calls him the
ἐξηγητὴς of
the absurd stories with which he regaled his colleagues (Aeschin.
F.
L. § 40). More usually, however, the word was applied
to any interpreter of laws, whether sacred or secular, but especially the
former (
Etym. M., s. v.); thus the whole order of Eupatrids;
were in the old times
νόμων διδάσκαλοι, ὁσίων καὶ
ἱερῶν ἐξηγηταί (
Plut. Thes.
25). Among the Eupatrids, again, the Eumolpidae (
q. v.) were
ἐξηγηταὶ of a
special class of sacred laws, those, namely, relating to the Eleusinian
mysteries; these laws were unwritten, and of immemorial antiquity ([Lys.]
c. Andoc. § 10). But with regard to the written
and civil laws of Athens in democratic times, the notion of several
grammarians that there was a class of
ἐξηγηταὶ or expounders of them, answering to the Roman
jurisconsults, is untenable, and indeed no longer held; the silence of the
orators is sufficient proof that no such persons existed (Ruhnken, on
Timaeus,
Lex. Plat. s. v.). Respecting the
ἐξηγητὴς of the laws of Lycurgus, at Sparta,
who in all probability never existed, see Müller,
Dor. 3.11, 2. In Athenian courts both the dicasts
and the presiding judges acted
[p. 1.766]without the
guidance of trained lawyers, and required the laws which they administered
to be intelligible to plain men. At the same time, the conservatism of
ancient religion involved a frequent appeal to experts in purely ceremonial
matters. Thus, the guilt of a homicide and the punishment of it were to be
determined by the law-courts; but if the homicide were proved accidental or
justifiable, the ceremonial expiation, the reconciliation with the relatives
of the deceased, and the disposal of the corpse remained as the province of
ἐξηγηταί: and various other points
connected with funerals were referred to them ([Dem.]
c. Everg. et
Mnes. p. 1160.68; Isae.
Or. 8
[
Ciron.], § 39: in these two passages the persons
interested in the burial consult
ἐξηγηταὶ
as to “the right thing to be done” ; they are cases of
conscience, as is also the somewhat different case in Plat.
Euthyphr. 4 D). Hence Plato in his ideal laws introduces
ἐξηγηταὶ of funerals, whom Cicero
quoting the passage calls
religionum
interpretes (Plat.
Legg. 12.958 D;
Cic. de Legg. 2.2. 7,
§ 67). Elsewhere Plato declares that the laws about all divine
things shall be brought from Delphi, and administered by
ἐξηγηταί (
Leggy. 6.759 C), who
are to be men of venerable age and high character, appointed for life after
a strict
δοκιμασία (ib. E): he further
entrusts them with the regulation of marriage rites (6.775 A). How far these
provisions coincided with the real law of Athens we are not in a position to
say.
In an official sense, the EXEGETAE were a board of
three persons, to whom application might be made in matters relating to
sacred law; they were all to be Eupatrids, and one of them necessarily a
member of the family of the Eumolpidae. The mode of their appointment is not
known; and the question whether they took cognisance of all appeals from
private persons like those mentioned above, or only of public matters, is
open to some doubt. They attended in the assembly of the people, and
interpreted the
διοσημίαι or signs from
heaven [
ECCLESIA p. 701
b]; they had thus the power of stopping the
business in hand, corresponding to the
obnuntiatio of the Roman augurs. But we may be sure that the
democratic Athenians would not allow an absolute or irresponsible veto to
these or any other officials; their action, like that of an Epistates who
refused to put the question to the vote, was no doubt liable to impeachment:
in practice it is probable that only a smart shower or other unmistakeable
phenomenon was allowed to break up the meeting; so that their duty would be
purely a formal one. The gloss of Timaeus, identical with the second of the
two in Suidas, runs as follows:
Ἐξηγηταὶ τρεῖς
γίνονται Ρυθόχρηστοι, οἷς μέλει καθαίρειν τοὺς ἄγει τινὶ
ἐνισχηθέντας: καὶ οἱ ἐξηγούμενοι τὰ πάτ ρια. These
grammarians certainly understood the phrase
τὰ
πάτρια in too wide a sense: we may further doubt, with
Schömann, whether the Delphic oracle was really consulted. (Pollux,
8.124 and 188; Suid.,
Etym. M., Lex. Rhet. s. v.; Ruhnken on
Timaeus; O. Müller on Aesch.
Eumen. p. 162 ff.;
Schömann,
Antiq. 1.429, E. T.; Gilbert,
Staatsalterth. 1.360.)
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